The whole court was filled with high pressure, and Guardiola was the one who rolled it up.

So much so that now in every serious game, both sides press high and counter-attack on the spot.

Almost every team in continental Europe plays the passing and controlling style.

This is how popularity works: when everyone starts playing the pass-and-control flow, the pass-and-control flow no longer has any advantages.

At first it was a dimensionality reduction attack, now it is a same-dimensional attack, and in the future it is possible that we will be eliminated.

In the past, it was high-post pressure against low-post defense, but now it is high-post pressure against high-post pressure. The advantage of high-post pressure is gone, and the advantage of passing and controlling the flow is almost just a mere decoration.

But no matter what, Guardiola's passing and controlling style actually emphasizes defense.

Looking back at Van Gaal's other disciple Mourinho, Mourinho's style of play is defensive counterattack.

But in fact, Mourinho's real core is offense.

Mourinho's use of players and on-the-spot tactics are very flexible. Mourinho inherited Van Gaal's tactical thinking of using the center forward as the organizational core in the frontcourt, and strengthened its utilization.

For example, when Mourinho was the head coach of Chelsea, Lampard was the core of the team on the surface, but in fact, the real organizational core was the center forward Drogba. Drogba was equivalent to an enhanced version of Kluivert, and the main attacker Lampard was the former Finnish Ice Prince Litmanen of Ajax, and the attacker Robbenduff who tore through the defense corresponded to Overmars.

This is the continuation of the tradition.

After Mourinho left Chelsea, several coaches who succeeded him, although they inherited Chelsea's luxurious lineup, failed to achieve the same results as Mourinho.

Grant can't do it, Scolari can't do it, Hiddink can't do it.

Only Ancelotti saw some clues and made adjustments and improvements based on Mourinho's ideas.

The similarity between Mourinho and Van Gaal is that: it is not important how the football passes through the midfield. If the opponent's defense in the middle is strong, we will go to the wing. If the opponent's defense in the wing is strong, we will go to the middle. If the opponent is strong in both the middle and the wing, we will play coordinated and interspersed defenses. Therefore, the football can pass through the midfield in any way. The important thing is how to score goals after entering the frontcourt.

Mourinho's approach is for the center forward to charge and tear open the space, and the attacking midfielder/shadow striker will step forward and kick the ball.

This tactic is actually very simple when it comes down to it, but this is the essence of Mourinho's pragmatism, and it is also a very valuable offensive system tactic in football tactics.

Guardiola's passing and controlling style seems to emphasize offense, but in fact it emphasizes defense.

Mourinho's anti-reflux strategy seems to emphasize defense, but in fact it emphasizes offense.

These two head coaches are obviously from the same school, but they have taken completely different paths.

As the teacher of Guardiola and Mourinho, Van Gaal is indeed awesome.

Although today's match was not played by Van Gaal, Guardiola or Mourinho, it still attracted many European football celebrities, such as Ajax's current board members Van Basten and Cruyff, to watch the game on site.

After a series of performances and UEFA ceremonies, at 7:45 pm, the Europa League final, Southampton vs. Ajax, finally started.

As the referee blew the whistle, the Ajax team, who had the ball, pressed forward as a whole.

In general, a team will have a maximum of eight players involved in the offense, including two forwards, four midfielders, and two full-backs. In addition, the defensive midfielders and full-backs usually dare not push too far forward to avoid being counterattacked after losing the ball.

However, Ajax was not worried about this at all. Ajax deployed 10 men in the attack and 10 men in the defense.

This tactic requires very high physical fitness and also very high abilities of the players.

This means that Ajax Club has a very strict set of standards when looking for and discovering new players.

Players who can meet Ajax's strict standards can play for other teams even if they don't play for Ajax.

But Ajax is too famous, after all, it is the club of Knicks and Van Basten! Young talents flock to it, which is why Ajax can be called a black shop in Europe.

Ajax made a fortune selling the "tongue-in-cheek" Luis Suarez last season.

Suarez played well when he was at Ajax, but not nearly as well as Ajax's own son Suleimani.

Ajax is training Soleimani to be a superstar who surpasses Messi and Ronaldo. Even if the price is 100 million euros, Ajax will not let the talented star Soleimani go.

But in reality, Soleimani is a world-class "flash in the pan" player.

Soleimani showed the brilliance of a top star at a young age, but ultimately failed to perform well in the all-out attack and defense and passing and controlling mode.

On the contrary, Suarez, who left Ajax because of a biting incident, unexpectedly rose to new heights in his career.

The passing and controlling tactics require Ajax to select the best players, but truly excellent players can not only play routine passing and controlling tactics, but can also shine in any similar team.

At the beginning of the game, Ajax had a wave of passing and cooperation in the frontcourt. After Eriksen passed Mikel, he passed the ball directly to Soleimani who was moving flexibly in the penalty area without any delay. Soleimani took the ball and shot directly with his back foot without hesitation. The ball was slightly higher than the crossbar.

The Ajax fans at the scene immediately sighed.

This ball is a very typical Ajax style.

Ajax's overall pressure made Southampton's defense a little stretched, and Soleimani on the forward line was interspersed very quickly. Ajax's passing in the frontcourt was also very fast, almost all of which were short passes on the ground, one after another, with a strong sense of rhythm.

Although Ajax's first wave of attack did not result in a goal, such an offensive really made Southampton feel a little breathless.

Play resumed and Davis took a short goal kick and passed the ball to Van Dijk on the right.

Van Dijk slowly controlled the tempo and steadily advanced with the ball.

Although Van Dijk is still very young, he already has the style of a great general.

At this time, Ajax players pressed forward as a whole again.

...(End of this chapter)